How We Remember Music or in My Case Don't

[gradus]

Anyone remember Robin Ray and his seemingly infallible musical memory including opus numbers?
Whilst not in that league I seem to have been able to remember music reasonably well since childhood and it certainly has nothing to do with musical ability (very modest indeed) in my case.
I also share the experience of those who associate music with the room or place in which I first heard them and the almost startling immediacy of recall of sixty years earlier that hearing say, Coronation Scot, can have. Similarly with some spoken voices eg David Davis (no not him), Uncle David of Children's Hour fame.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thank you MrGongGong ... i have always found string quartets on cd or radio rather lifeless ... but being in the room i have found myself completely entranced .... most recently one perfectly played chord in LvB 7th symphony played by a student orchestra moved me beyond description .... music does not have to be perfect in an audio sense but real ....

some evidence from psychology ... person to person transmission beats text, interactive audio visual etc etc in developing knowledge ... i wonder if the same is true of music listening ... we hear best when we see the people play ... and hear the real sounds in all their vicissitudes ...thereby feeling a lot more involved and engaged ... and then as you say each of us can do our own listening [we must surely listen as variously as this thread shows we remember]

[MrGongGong]

thank you MrGongGong ... i have always found string quartets on cd or radio rather lifeless ... but being in the room i have found myself completely entranced .... most recently one perfectly played chord in LvB 7th symphony played by a student orchestra moved me beyond description .... music does not have to be perfect in an audio sense but real ....

some evidence from psychology ... person to person transmission beats text, interactive audio visual etc etc in developing knowledge ... i wonder if the same is true of music listening ... we hear best when we see the people play ... and hear the real sounds in all their vicissitudes ...thereby feeling a lot more involved and engaged ... and then as you say each of us can do our own listening [we must surely listen as variously as this thread shows we remember]

Actually I think its a bit more complicated than thinking that "live" music is always "better"
for some musics , being alone with a recording is best
for others jumping up and down in a field after a few too many shandies works well

what i've learnt is that its remarkably easy to encourage people to listen to music that they would otherwise dismiss (and I'm talking about the lovers of Brahms as well as the Hip Hop generation !) if one considers HOW the music is contextualised

for the acousmatic composer "seeing the person play" is exactly the opposite of what they seek (and when done really well it works brilliantly)

[salymap]

I nearly always remember overtures or pieces with a title, Hary Janos, Capriccio Espagnole, Marche Slave,.it's the symphonies that sometimes trip me up, after 65 years or so of listening. Composer easy,but is it sym2,4,6.etc? Ashamed of that but there we are.

[Serial_Apologist]

Actually I think its a bit more complicated than thinking that "live" music is always "better"
for some musics , being alone with a recording is best
for others jumping up and down in a field after a few too many shandies works well

what i've learnt is that its remarkably easy to encourage people to listen to music that they would otherwise dismiss (and I'm talking about the lovers of Brahms as well as the Hip Hop generation !) if one considers HOW the music is contextualised

for the acousmatic composer "seeing the person play" is exactly the opposite of what they seek (and when done really well it works brilliantly)

While I think I understand what you mean by evaluating different sorts of music by reference to their context, I still find myself holding to qualitative criteria that cannot be equivalently applied to, say, a Mahler symphony and a recording of pop chart music, and critiqueing the context that produces values that claim equal value for both.

S-A

[MrGongGong]

While I think I understand what you mean by evaluating different sorts of music by reference to their context, I still find myself holding to qualitative criteria that cannot be equivalently applied to, say, a Mahler symphony and a recording of pop chart music, and critiqueing the context that produces values that claim equal value for both.

S-A

What I mean (I think) is that the ability to listen to music in contexts for which it is hard to grasp (for example listening to The Rite Of Spring on a tiny computer speaker as opposed to sitting in front of an orchestra and/or sitting in a concert hall in silence to listen to The Chemical Brothers) is something that we shouldn't expect everyone to be able to do, or even do easily............

the problems with "evaluating" (and this is probably a bit of a niche point that should be on an education thread !) are sometimes to do with using the wrong tools to talk about the music. When my daughter was doing A level music the teacher (who kind of missed the point a bit , but I sat on my hands........again !) tried to get them to talk about the popular music and jazz parts with the same analytical criteria that one would use for the art music parts. It makes a nonsense to try and analyse the blues in terms of harmony , there's not that much to say really but there's a lot to say about harmony in the music of Mahler........ there's a whole heap of other things to say (that are equally part of the music) about the Blues but without realising that there need to be different ways of writing and talking about music then you are a bit stuffed !

It doesn't make much sense to say (for example) that Mahler 5 is "better" than (looking at the piles of CDs on my desk) Roots by Sepultra as they aren't really "about" the same things , even though they are equally music and equally worthy of attention ............ I suspect I might carry on listening to Mahler after my interest in South American Metal has passed BUT thats not to say that it makes it "better" ....

this is a bit OT
sorry

[Serial_Apologist]

this is a bit OT
sorry

Not at all - and thanks for the reply: given me a lot to think about!

[BBMmk2]

With some pieces of music | find it difficult to recollect the title, or composer, but in others, I do know for certain! Perhaps its really a cas of remembering the ones you really like?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

In general, I find I can recall/identify a very large number of works very quickly, which is what I think this thread is about.

However, when it comes to performing, there are very few works I can play from memory, which is very frustrating. Most of these are things I learnt when at school and they have stuck with me ever since. 18 months ago, I decided to accept the challenge of a singing exam, and entered myself for Grade 8. I could remember the musical lines easily enough, but had to resort to long walks on the beach, with the German and English texts written on postcards, repeating them ad infinitum.

I envy anyone who can memorise easily.

[Serial_Apologist]

What was that you said?